DEPUTY: COMMUNITY NEEDS MEETINGS ON METH

There need to be public meetings about the use and dangers of
methamphetamine in Whitfield County, a drug detective with the Whitfield
County Sheriff's Office says.

"When we have these meetings we need to take action about what we talk
about and not forget about what we talk about when we walk out the door,"
Detective Ray Grossman said.

That's what Grossman told a five-member legislative methamphetamine study
committee on Wednesday in Summerville.

"Law enforcement alone cannot deal with the huge, huge meth problem that we
have," Grossman said.

Public meetings here could only improve the way the community is dealing
with the meth problem, said Whitfield County Commissioner Odell Cochran.

"It's one of the No. 1 problems we have in the county," Cochran said. "I
think those type meetings couldn't do anything but help. It would be a
great idea."

The Whitfield County community should already be aware of the meth problem
based on multiple reports in the media, said Mike Babb, commission chairman.

"It's an epidemic," Babb said. "You'd have to be living under a rock not to
know that."

The only way to stop the problem is to change the attitudes of the users,
Babb said.

"Why do people make meth? Because they make a tremendous amount of money on
it," he said. "What we've got to address is why people use it in the first
place knowing the dangers of it."

Such meetings have been talked about in the past but hasn't been acted on
yet, said Maj. John Gibson with the sheriff's office.

A meeting could be set up, though Gibson said he doesn't have a time frame
for it.

"That's the reason we sent (Grossman), to look at it and see if we could
get some info ourselves," Gibson said.

Community meetings would make citizens aware of the problem of combating
meth, as well as the time and efforts law enforcement officers put into
catching drug users and dealers, Gibson said.

It would also allow citizens to give law enforcement officers information,
such as their ideas for alternative treatment programs, he said.

"It would be most definitely a plus for the community," Gibson said.

Concerning the city of Dalton, the idea of community meetings would have to
be referred to the City Council by Police Chief James Chadwick, said Walter
Parsons, deputy city administrator.

"It's not to say that we're not interested, but I'm not aware of any
requests from our departments at this time," Parsons said.

The state Legislature needs to work with law enforcement agencies to combat
what they call an extensive methamphetamine problem throughout the state,
Rep. Barbara Massey Reece, D-Menlo, said Thursday.

That's why the study committee is holding five meetings between now and the
end of the year to meet with emergency responders.

"It's a very dangerous thing," Reece said. "It's so easy to become
addicted. It's so easy to manufacture. Yet it's so destructive to the
addict and the addict's family."

Grossman and other law enforcement officers and firefighters spoke to the
committee about the dangers of methamphetamine.

Drug abuse leads to other crimes, such as burglary, domestic violence and
child neglect, Grossman said.

"They steal, they sell drugs, they don't take care of their families," he
said. "All they want to do is do that drug. They'll steal or whatever to
obtain it. Many users turn into drug dealers to support their habit."

One way to try to curb the problem would be restricting access to cold
medicine containing ephedrine by keeping it behind the counters at stores
so customers would have to ask an employee for a box, Reece said.

Ephedrine is one of the main ingredients in methamphetamine.

"That way they couldn't buy 10 packs at a time," Reece said.

The study committee's next meeting will be at the end of July at the Public
Safety Training Center in Forsyth.

The meetings are scheduled to wrap up at the beginning of December, and the
committee expects to issue its report by the end of the year, Reece said.